Hat stay



J. E. JUBIN HAT STAY Filed June 26, 1946 Sept. 12, 1950 abhor/nap iatented Sept. 12, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,522,274 HAT STAY Joseph E. Jubin, New Orleans, La. Application June 26, 1946, Serial No. 679,500

4 Claims. 01. 206-9) This invention relates to hat stays for properly centering and positioning hats in boxes or containers, and constitutes an improvement in stays of the type disclosed in Patent No.

2,115,633, granted April 26, 1938 to Joseph G.

Huye, wherein the hat is maintained against vertical displacement solely by frictional engagement with portions of the stay.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a hat stay wherein locking means are provided to abut against the upper edge of the sweat band of the hat to positively prevent vertical displacement thereof, even though the stay and hat are inverted and subjected to jarring and rough handling such as may be expected in the shipping and handling of the hats.

Other more specific objects are: to provide such locking means which may be adapted for use with a collapsible stay; to provide such locking means which may be resiliently laterally compressed or confined while passing through the sweat band of a hat, to expand laterally into vertical registry with portions of said sweat band after having passed vertically therethrough; to provide means associated with said locking means for limiting the lateral expansion thereof to prevent harmful engagement with the interior of the hat crown; and, to provide in association with such locking means, centering means for maintaining the hat against lateral displacement.

A further object is to provide a hat stay embodying the above objects and advantages which may be simply and inexpensively formed from an integral fiat blank of cardboard, pasteboard or other usual stiflly resilient material.

The foregoing, as well as other objects and advantages hereinafter appearing, are attained by the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 represents a perspective bottom plan view of a form or blank which may be folded to form the preferred form of stay embodying my invention;

Figure 2, a perspective view of a stay formed from the blank shown in Figure l, as same would appear when applied to an anchoring or separating member, such as a box bottom or a separating board to be placed in a box; and

Figure 3, a longitudinal vertical sectional View showing the stay as used in a box, a hat being applied to said stay as shown in dotted lines.

Referring now in detail to the accompanying I 2 drawings, A designates a separator or separating board to which the stay may be secured for use in the manner set forth in the aforementioned Huye Patent 2,115,633; A designates a paste board or paper board or other box bottom to which the stay may alternatively be secured; B, the body of the box; C, the top of the box; F, a felt hat held in arranged position by the stay; and, S, the usual sweat band of said hat. Broadly the stay of the present invention comprises a central stay body which is adapted for attachment to a supporting surface, such as "the upper surface of the separator A or the box bottom A, together with laterally oppositely projecting pairs 66 of vertically disposed resilient sheet material centering and locking members.

Although the central stay body may assume various forms, so long as it provides means for anchoring'and supporting the flaps or members 6, I prefer to apply my present invention to the collapsible hat stay shown and described in Patent 2,115,633 to Joseph G. Huye.

blank is scored along the sides of the panel I,

as at 9, and across the ends thereof, as at 9, the sides 2 being scored midway between the score lines 9 and the tabs 4, as at H], and the ends 3 being similarly scored midway between the score lines 9' and the tabs 5, as at It. The joints between the tabs 4 and sides 2 are scored as at H, and the joints between the tabs 5 and the ends 3 are similarly scored as at H.

, The centering and locking members 5 may be formed integral with the sides 2, in such a blank as shown in Figure 1, by forming said members 6 as lateral extensions or projecting end portions of their respective sides 2, each said member 6 preferably being cut away along a slanting line 6' along its upper corner to avoid interference in the application of a hat to the erected stay.

Where said members 6 include both upper and lower flaps or wings or portions '1 and 8 respectively, as in the preferred embodiment illustrated, said upper and lower portions 1 and 8 of each member 6 may be connected along a score or fold line which constitutes a continuation of the score line H! in its respective side of the stay body,

:3 thus rendering the stay collapsible and erectible in the same manner as in the aforementioned Huye Patent 2,115,633. The upper portion or wing l of each member 5 projects beyond the lower portion 8 thereof and is provided with a lower laterally extending locking edge 1'.

The stay may be formed from the above described blank in the manner set forth in the aforesaid Huye patent, the erected stay having an appearance similar to that illustrated in Figures 2 and 3, the procedurefor forming the stay from said blank being briefly summarized as fo lows:

With the blank in inverted position, as shown in Figure l, the outer portions of be folded back along the score the tabs 4 thereof lie flat against the lower face of panel l. The ends 3 will be fo'lded inwardly toward each other on the score lines 9 tolie fiat against the lower face of the panel 1 and will I then be folded outwardly away from each other on the score lines it, whereupon thetabs Swill be folded inwardly'on the score lines I! toward each other. Thetabs 4 and 5 may then be pasted or secured by other; suitable means to the face of a separator A The stay thus or box bottom A". I I formed is in collapsed or fiat condition and maybe erected by inserting a finger through the finger pull opening 0 and lifting the top panel I vertically relatively to the separator A or box bottom A, whereupon the upper and lower, or inner and outer portions, of the side and end panels 2 and 3,; on opposite sides of the score lines Id and H3 respectively will lie in vertical planes, The stay may be maintained in erected condition by bending theend portions or members 5 of each pair towards each other, whereby the lower edgesof the portions 8 thereoi will engage the upper surface of the, separator A or box bottom A, but of alignment with thescore lines ll of the sides 2, as shown in Figure 2. I

In. the use of the invention, .with thestay erected, the members 6 at one end of the stay are pressed towards each other while at hat F is slantingly applied to receive said end of the stay in one'end portion of its crown. Then the other members 5 atthe opposite end of the stay are pressed inwardly toward each other and the hat moved downwardly over that-end of the stay. As each end of the stay is received in the hat, the members 6 at said end are released, except as confined by the hat, and will'by their resiliency spring outwardly to engage the interior of the hat.

Thereafter, during continued downward movement of the hat to the point where its brim rests L on the upper surface .of the separator or partition A or the box bottom A, as shown in Figure 3, the upper portionsor flaps or wings I of the members 6 will pass completely vertically through and above the sweat band S of the hat,- and will then expand or spread outwardly to have their outer free end portions and the locking edges 1' thereof lie just above and. at least partially in vertical registry with theirrespective.subjacent upper edge portions of the sweatband S,

Thus it will be seen that the upper portions or wings or flaps 1 function as locking means which, by abutting engagement of their lower locking edges 1 with the upper edge of the sweat boxes are inverted.

At the same time, in the preferred form of the the sides 2 will lines H] to have,

mg means 7 against the interior of the hat crown above the sweat band S, the vertical free end edges 8' of the centering flaps 8 may be ofis'et rearwardly such a distance relative to the vertical free end edges of the locking flaps or means I,

' as to engage the sweat band S after the respective integrally connected locking flaps I have sprung outwardly above the sweat band S and in vertical registry therewith, to limit such outward expansion of the locking flaps "a and possible harmful pressure thereof against the interior of the hat crown.

However, while theforegoing arrangement constitutes a novel and advantageous feature of the invention, the invention is not limited thereto, nor is the invention limited to use with acollapsible stay body. 7

For instance where it is not necessary to prevent pressure. of the looking flaps l against the interior of the hat crown, as when used with straw or other hats which would not be damaged or disarranged thereby, the lower flaps 8 could be either disconnected from the upperflaps 6, or else entirely omitted, in which case the locking flaps or means l would also function as the lateral centering means for the hat. In the latter case the score lines Hi and It) would be omitted from the sides 2 and ends 3 of the stay structure to prevent'collapse of same in the absence of the. lower flaps 8, or any other type of stay body could be substituted as supporting and anchoring means for the wings or flaps 1.

In removing the hat from the stay, where the hat is of flexible material the flaps i maybe pressed inwardly out of vertical registry with the sweat band S by pressure on the'adjacent exterior portions ofthe hat. When the hat is of relatively stiff material, or whendesired,-same 'may be removed from the stay simply by lifting it with sufficient force toovercome the grip of the locking flaps or means '1.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A hat stay comprising, a central stay body having a bottom disposed in a horizontal plane to be anchored to a supporting surface, horizontally oppositely projecting pairs of vertically disposed stifliy resilient sheet material looking flaps attached at their inner ends to said stay body, said lockingfiaps being respectively formed with free lower locking. edges parallel to and spaced above the plane of said bottom, the outer free ends of the locking flaps of each said pair being resiliently laterally compressible towards each other; in combination with vertically disposed stiiily resilient sheet material horizontally projecting centering flaps disposed below and attached to said respective locking flaps, the free outer ends of said centering flaps being relatively inwardly offset from the free ends of said respective locking flaps to engage the laterally .inner surface of the sweat bandof a hat applied to said stay. I

2. A hat stay comprising, a central stay body 3 having a bottom disposed in a horizontal plane,

horizontally oppositely projecting pairs of vertically disposed stifily resilient sheet material locking flaps attached at their inner ends to said stay body, said locking flaps being respectively formed with free lower locking edges parallel to and spaced above the plane of said bottom, the outer free ends of the locking flaps of each said pair being resiliently laterally compressible towards each other; in combination with means associated with said locking flaps to engage the inner surface of a hat sweat band to limit the lateral expansion of said flaps.

3. A hat stay comprising a central stay body having a bottom disposed in a horizontal plane, at least one pair of vertically disposed horizontally projecting stifiiy resilient sheet material locking flaps connected at their inner ends to said stay body, said locking flaps being respectivelyformed with free lower locking edges parallel to and spaced above the plane of said bottom, the outer free ends of each said pair of locking flaps being resiliently laterally compressible towards each other.

4. A hat stay comprising, a central stay body having a bottom disposed in a horizontal plane, oppositely horizontally projecting pairs of vertically disposed stiflly resilient sheet material locking fiapsattached at theirinner ends to said stay body, said locking flaps being formed re- REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,889,933 Pratt Dec. 6, 1932 2,115,633 I-Iuye Apr. 26, 1938 2,314,106 Schornstein et al. Mar. 16, 1943 

